February Tech Round-Up: The Rise of the Machines
ChatGPT is already transforming the world. In this month’s newsletter we explore the duality - the yin and yang - of generative AI, while asking if it is ushering in the next tech bubble.
Enjoy, from all of us at North Ridge Partners
(Image by Dall-E 2: “a painting in the style of Picasso depicting the rise of generative AI”).
After years of bubbling away in the lab, artificial intelligence – and especially generative AI – has burst into public consciousness with the arrival of ChatGPT. It promises huge transformational change in business, contestability in previously incontestable markets like search, but also a new set of risks and challenges.
Original Thinking From North Ridge Partners
Click here to read about the digital arms race that ChatGPT kicked off between Alphabet and Microsoft this month. It’s only the first shot in the huge generative AI disruption that is coming behind it. No wonder the VCs are piling on.
Click here to read the discussion about whether the speed at which ChatGPT has emerged has kicked off debates about whether business and society are ready for the AI revolution.
In this month’s minicast, Roger Sharp, Kevin Waller and Peter Hynd dive into generative AI, look at different machine learning use cases, and ask whether an AI bubble is developing.
Click here for the AI flavoured music playlist ChatGPT produced for us. Our friendly chatbot dutifully complied and even gave us this bopping little synopsis. “These songs touch on various themes related to AI, including its potential for good and evil, its impact on society, and the relationship between humans and machines. Whether you're a fan of pop, rock, or a mixture of both, this playlist is sure to get you thinking about the role of AI in our lives.”
There was only one problem. 5 of the 10 songs it recommended weren’t real. Here’s what’s left.
Reporting Season
Alphabet wobbles at the worst possible moment as the world realises that AI could just bring contestability back to the search market.
Despite a 4% decline in advertising, Meta’s shares have surged ~50% this year, as its investors are lovin’ the company’s cost-out program.
Amazon outperforms expectations and quietly builds a $37bn advertising business that barely rates a mention with investors.
Apple suffers a rare miss.
Something to tweet about! Tesla produces its most profitable result yet.
Netflix misses on profits but roars on subscriber numbers.
Big Tech and Generative AI
Microsoft doubles down on OpenAI with a $10bn investment.
Alphabet and Google couldn’t shut up about AI on their earnings calls – while Amazon didn’t speak a word.
ChatGPT by any other name – Alphabet launches Bard AI, then destroys $100bn in market capitalisation with a tweet.
What if Apple flips its support from Google to Bing on Safari?
Asia Pacific Tech News
With aggregate revenues of Chinese Internet companies in reverse, its ecommerce giants look west.
JD.com shutters sites in Indonesia and Thailand, shifting its focus to logistics.
Baidu is getting into the generative AI game with a ChatGPT-style service.
Geopolitical tension aside: US VCs are still chasing Chinese start-ups.
More Chat (GPT)
How ChatGPT will change business - and how it won’t.
Our favourite use case - Do Not Pay: AI assistant defends human’s speeding case.
Is this the world’s first AI movie? Salt Movie Project.
GitHub’s Copilot AI can write up to 40% of your code – and that’s set to double.
The Dark Side
OpenAI doesn’t come to this game with totally clean hands: it underpaid 200 Kenyans to perfect ChatGPT, then sacked them.
ChatGPT fools scientists: Abstracts written by ChatGPT fool the scientific community.
It’s not all beer and skittles: CNET used AI to write articles. It was a journalistic disaster.
What happened when ChatGPT applied for a job: Recruiters unwittingly recommend ChatGPT for interview.
Catching cheaters by using AI: How to nab a cheat in a ChatGPT world.
Stuff We Found Interesting
Four technologies driving the next huge wave of innovation.
There may be plenty of new jobs in AI for all those recently sacked tech workers.
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